Travels Of Richard And John Lander Into The Interior Of Africa For The Discovery Of The Course And Termination Of The Niger By Robert Huish
- Page 178 of 302 - First - Home
It Was Then Delivered Into The
Hands Of Adooley, Who Said That He Should Send It By Accra, One Of
His Head Men, To Cape Coast Castle, And That The Man Would Wait There
Till All The Articles Should Be Procured For Him.
If that be the
case, the Landers imagined that Accra would have a very long time to
wait.
The interpreter of the Landers, old Hooper, having been suspected by
the chief to be in their interest, a young man, named Tookwee, who
understood a little English, was sent for, and commanded to remain
during the whole conference, in order to detect any error that Hooper
might make, and to see that every thing enumerated by the chief,
should be written in the list of articles.
During this long and serious conversation, the Landers were highly
amused with a singular kind of concert, which was formed by three
little bells, which were fastened to the tails of the same number of
cats by a long string, and made a jingling noise, whenever the
animals thought proper to play off any of their antics. As an
accompaniment to this singular kind of music, they were favoured with
the strains of an organ, which instrument was turned by a little boy,
placed purposely in a corner of the apartment.
In the afternoon, a young Jenna woman came to visit them, accompanied
by a female friend from Houssa. Her hair was traced with such
extraordinary neatness, that John Lander expressed a wish to examine
it more minutely. The girl had never beheld such a thing as a white
man before, and permission was granted with a great deal of coyness,
mixed up perhaps with a small portion of fear, which was apparent as
she was slowly untying her turban. No sooner, however, was the
curiosity of the travellers gratified, than a demand of two hundred
kowries was insisted on by her companion, that, it was alleged, being
the price paid in the interior by the male sex to scrutinize a lady's
hair. They were obliged to conform to the usual custom, at which the
women expressed themselves highly delighted. The hair, which had
excited the admiration of the travellers, was made up in the shape of
a hussar's helmet, and very ingeniously traced on the top. Irregular
figures were likewise braided on each side of the head, and a band of
worked thread, dyed in indigo, encircled it below the natural hair,
which seemed, by its tightness and closeness, to have been glued fast
to the skin. This young Jenna woman was by far the most interesting,
both in face and form, of any they had seen since their landing; and
her prettiness was rendered more engaging by her retiring modesty and
perfect artlessness of manner, which, whether observed in black or
white, are sure to command the esteem and reverence of the other sex.
Her eyelids were stained with a bluish-black powder, which is the
same kind of substance, it is supposed, as that described in a note
in Mr. Beckford's Vatheck. Her person was excessively clean, and her
apparel flowing, neat, and graceful. Before taking leave, the girl's
unworthy companion informed John Lander, that her protegee was
married, but that as her husband was left behind at Jenna, she would
prevail on her to visit the travellers in the evening after sunset.
Of course they expressed their abhorrence of the proposal, and were
really grieved to reflect, that, with so much meekness, innocence,
modesty, and beauty, their timid friend should be exposed to the
wiles of a crafty and wicked woman. On this occasion, John Lander
says, "We have longed to discover a solitary virtue lingering amongst
the natives of this place, but as yet our search has been
ineffectual."
As a contrast to the youthful individual just described, an old
withered woman entered their residence in the evening, and began
professing the most unbounded affection for both the travellers. She
had drank so much rum that she could scarcely stand. She first began
to pay her attentions to John Lander, who, being the more sprightly
of the two, she thought was the most likely to accede to her wishes;
she happened, however, to be the owner of a most forbidding
countenance, and four of her front teeth had disappeared from her
upper jaw, which caused a singular and disagreeable indention of the
upper lip. The travellers were disgusted with the appearance and
hateful familiarity of this ancient hag, who had thus paid so ill a
compliment to their vanity, and subsequently they forced her out of
the yard without any ceremony.
The travellers now ascertained that the king would not allow them to
go to Jenna by the nearest beaten path, on the plea, that, as sacred
fetish land would lie in their way, they would die the moment in
which they trod upon it.
The pleasant news was now received, that the king of Jenna had
arrived at that town from Katunga. His messenger reached Badagry on
the 30th March, and immediately paid a visit to the Landers,
accompanied by a friend. They regaled him with a glass of rum,
according to their general custom, the first mouthful of which he
squirted from his own into the mouth of his associate, and vice
versa. This was the first time they had witnessed this dirty and
disgusting practice.
Adooley again sent for the travellers, he having recollected some
articles, which were necessary to complete the cargo, which the king
of England was to send him. To their great surprise, however, the
first article that he demanded was nothing less than a gun-boat, with
a hundred men from England, as a kind of body-guard; for his own
private and immediate use, however, he demanded a few common
tobacco-pipes. It was a very easy matter to give a bill for the
gun-boat and the hundred men, neither of which, they well knew, would
be duly honoured; for, before they could come back protested to king
Adooley, the drawers of it knew they would be far beyond his power;
and they had received such specimens of the extreme nobleness and
generosity of his character, that they determined never to throw
themselves in his power again.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 178 of 302
Words from 181284 to 182332
of 309561